She shoved her.

Tina's mind was racing. What's going on? Tina tried her hardest to find out what was making Liz so angry, but there was a wall.

"What? You're just going to stand there and gawk at me?"

Liz pushed Tina's left shoulder sharply, "C'mon, Tina, fight back. You're going to let a stupid, half blood Gryffindor like me kick a pure-blood Slytherin's ass? What would your peers think, huh?"

Liz attempted to shove Tina again, but she caught her wrist.

"What is your problem?" Tina asked angrily. Sometimes it was so hard for her to keep her temper in control. "What did I do to you? Why are you mad at me?"

Liz wrenched her wrist out of Tina's grasp. Liz was so tired of Tina acting oblivious to all of the crap she did. She was just sick of it.

"What? Like you don't know?" Liz was on the verge of hysterics. Tina, on the other hand, had a boiling temper that was about to challenge Liz's.

"Liz, God, calm down…" Maya tried but she was ignored.

"Oh my god, Christina!" Liz yelled, "I may be the one screaming and frothing at the mouth right now, but the problem here is you. You and your stupid pure-blood shit with your shitty Slytherin peers who think they're better than everyone else!"

"Liz, I'm sorry I was picked to be in Slytherin, there's nothing I can do about that! My whole line of family has been in Slytherin, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to deny that I'm a pure-blood? Do you want to ask the fucking hat to change its mind?"

"I just want you to remember who your real friends are instead of hanging out with a bunch of snobs who strut around just because of they're family names!"

Tina snarled, "My friends don't strut. That's your House's department."

Liz's eyes narrowed, "What did you say." It wasn't a question. It was a dare.

"You know what I'm talking about! All because of your boyfriend Potter, all the Gryffindors are suddenly superior because they have some boy in their House! That's all he is! He's not a celebrity or a god, he's Harry Potter - the boy who lived. The boy. You Gryffindors are all so cocky now that he's won you a few dumb awards. At least in Slytherin we don't rely on one kid to do all the glory work."

"Actually, she has a point there," Adam chose that moment to say. Tina and Liz both snapped at him, "Shut up!" He recoiled.

Liz couldn't believe what she was hearing, "He's not my boyfriend and the Gryffindors aren't cocky, you bitch!"

As Tina whipped her wand out, Liz seemingly simultaneously drew out hers. They just stood there for a moment, aiming their wands at each other's necks.

"I dare you," Liz spoke quietly.

"Don't you remember, Liz?" Tina whispered in a dangerous tone,

"We don't do dares, we do truths. And I just found out that you're not the friend I knew."

"Well we all got our education today, haven't we?"

Wham. Tina and Liz fell sideways as a large, black animal lunged at them and pinned them to the ground with each its paws. Liz and Tina's stomachs ached from the impact and the pressure the panther bore down on them.

"Fuck off, Maya!" Liz managed to half scream and half gasp. The panther leaned in on her and bore its teeth with an angry glare. Tina, with wand still at hand, pointed it directly at the panther's chest.

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

The animal was thrown back and slammed against the wall, unconscious. Adam, as well as Liz, stared at Tina in horror as she picked herself off from the floor and dusted herself off.

"Well then," she glowered at Liz, "I guess I just now realized who my real friends are after all." And with that, she left the room.

She sat in her common room, crying.

"What's wrong with you?"

Tina turned around to look behind her and saw Draco with his usual smirk, which quickly vanished as soon as he saw her face.

"Are you okay?" His voice even changed.

"No," Tina answered truthfully, "no, I'm not okay." She wiped her face harshly and tried clearing her voice between the sobs. "I just got into a huge fight with my best friends. They were just so mad at me and then I lost my temper and…" she trailed off and sobbed again, "I just want to know Maya's okay."

"That Ravenclaw girl you hang out with?" Draco asked as Tina nodded, "What did you do?"

"I know it's against the rules, but I attacked her. I attacked my best friend with a disarming spell to the chest. I really wish I didn't do it, now. I hope she'll be okay."

"Well, Slytherins are known to break the rules a little bit more than often," he assured her as he handed her a chocolate frog.

Tina stared at it. "Where did you get that?"

"Swiped it from the boys' dorms. Don't know whose it was, but it's yours now."

Tina made a noise that was between a laugh and a sob, "You're terrible. Thanks, though."

"Anytime," Draco turned to walk away, but then stopped, "Hey, Christina?"

Tina blinked; barely anyone called her by her full name.

"Yeah?"

"Will you go to the Halloween dance with me?"

She turned deep red and replied, "Sure."